Euan Goodland, Peter Hall, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy

Will, Peter, Euan and I met at a bit earlier than normal at 7pm expecting a longish trip to explore as much as Longwood as is possible in an evening. Lawrence, our resident Longwood expert had to cancel last minute which left the four of us a bit unsure of the route. Will, Peter and I had been down multiple times before but still really had no idea. After faffing with the lock for an age we very quickly got into the tight, vertical slides and squeezes that is the Longwood entrance. Euan I think led with me last with the kit. No problems were encountered until we reached the narrow left squeeze. The other three made it though pretty easily on their fronts but I for some reason couldn’t turn round and had to be guided through feet first like a like a lorry reversing! This led to a space big enough for all of us to lie / manoeuvre in. Euan, at the front was the first to come across the small but awkward pitch. Lying on my back I awkwardly set a hand line up around a pillar and sild it down to him and Euan led us down the pitch. Once down we could at last stand in a roomy chamber. The sound of the stream was strong with water running down the far right of the chamber and another clear route to the left. As the aim of the trip was to reach the main stream way I got down into the water and looked for a potential path. Getting down on my side I looked round the corner and could see two 90deg thin turns. Looking very unappealing I (wrongly) unanimously decided this was not the way. Heading the other way we found ourselves in the great chamber. An odd looking chamber as everything, all the formations and rock was very dark, even compared to the chamber with the stream. We had a quick gander round here while Will and Euan continued on. I tried to explore up a flowstone shoot with an old peg in it but to no avail. Will and Euna reappeared from the corner of the chamber. Thire description of the next bit of the cave was passage leading to massive hole in the floor that looked impassable without rope (turns out it could be traversed) After a bit of discussion and none of us having any clue the correct way on we decided discretion was the better part of valour and started heading back up. I climbed up the pitch holding the rope first and set a ladder up for the others. When we were all up into the lying down space Will very awkwardly rolled the ladder and we started making our way back up, which like always was much quicker than you expect. After faffing with the lock again and walking back to the cars (with our helmets on). The evening finished with a quick a trip to the Woody. It was discussed at the beginning that just assuming someone would know the way was lazy and a bit irresponsible and that perhaps more effort should be put in to getting surveys / reading descriptions by all team members.

— Seán Tidey 5/08/2024